Summary of "The Framing of Women Sexual Difference in SI for Kids Editorial Photos," written by By Marie Hardin, Susan Lynn, Kristie Walsdorf and Brent Hardin

1. THE FRAMING OF SEXUAL DIFFERENCE
IN SI FOR KIDS EDITORIAL PHOTOS
By Marie Hardin, Susan Lynn, Kristie Walsdorf, and Brent Hardin

2. 1996 Olympic Games - Atlanta
◦ Called “The Year of the Woman”
◦ American female Olympians won a higher proportion of medals than
their male teammates
◦ Amy Van Dyken, Angel Martino, Jenny Thompson, Amanda Beard,
and Wendy Hedgepeth all took home medals.
◦ Media focused on the success of female athletes during the Atlanta
Olympics
◦ The strong showing of American women was “the legacy of the
Atlanta Games,”
◦ This focus on women marked a significant, positive trend

3. 1996 Olympic Games
◦ Women receive greater media coverage from the Olympics than from
traditional athletics.
◦ Recently, the stature of female athletics in the games has risen.
◦ Some hoped the 1996 boost in media coverage would draw media
attention to the growing numbers of women in sports.
◦ For example: U.S. Women’s Soccer World Cup – July 1999
◦ Coverage demonstrated the size of potential audiences for women’s
sports
◦ Fueled speculation that the traditionally gender-inequitable coverage of
sports might change.

4. Women in Sports - Participation
◦ Today, more young women participate in a
wider array of physical activities and sports
than ever before in American history.
◦ Women in intercollegiate sports has
drastically increased since the
implementation of Title IX
◦ Participation in girls’ high school sports in
the United States reached record numbers in
2000

5. Media Treatment of Female Athletes
◦ Despite the numbers rationalizing an increase
in female sports coverage, this shift has not yet
been seen.
◦ Studies consistently reflect the media’s refusal
to provide images that reflect women’s
presence in athletics.

6. Media Treatment of Female Athletes
◦ This treatment of female athletes is even reflected
in sports literature for children
◦ Though female athletes provide excellent sports
role models, studies of images in popular
children’s sports magazines revealed inequitable
coverage for female sports and an adherence to
gender stereotypes

7. Sports Illustrated for Kids (SIK)
◦ SIK is a sports magazine circulated each
month to approximately 1 million readers
at a median age of 11 years
◦ The images of athletes in SIK are the main
focus of this study.

8. Sports Illustrated for Kids
◦ This study examines the framing used to create
images of women and female athletics in SIK
◦ These images are used to determine:
◦ if images of girls and women in the magazine have improved
in percentage or quality since the 1996 “gender equity
Olympics”
◦ if these visual images emphasize sexual difference.

9. Previous studies focusing on SIK
◦ Duncan and Sayaovong (1990)
◦ Used content analysis to examine sexual differences in SIK
photos.
◦ Sexual difference: the framing of cultural, societally constructed
differences between men and women (e.g., woman as sex
object, woman as emotionally less under control) as being
natural and real.

10. Previous studies focusing on SIK
◦ Duncan and Sayaovong:
◦ Examined 459 editorial photographs in six issues of the
1989 SIK
◦ Found an emphasis on sexual difference in photographic
depictions of athletes.
◦ Men outnumbered women almost three to one and were
depicted as active more than twice as often as women
were.
◦ Sporting roles depicted traditional gender stereotypes—
women in individual, aesthetic sports, and men in strength
oriented or team sports.

11. Previous studies focusing on SIK
◦ Cuneen and Sidwell (1998)
◦ Examined advertising photographs in SIK
◦ Found the same relationship between
gender and sports in advertising content
that Duncan and Sayaovong (1990) found
in editorial content.

12. Hardin et. al
◦ This study replicates Duncan and Sayaovong’s 1998
study.
◦ This serves as a barometer of progress for women in
sports.
◦ This replication is important because, though
Olympics coverage has steadily improved, how the
media frame female athletes on a consistent basis is
the true test.

13. Why focus on children’s literature?
◦ Sports images directed towards children may warrant
the most critical attention.
◦ Media framing is often more effective when media
consumers are not sophisticated about a particular
topic.
◦ The most unsophisticated of media consumers are
children
◦ Media play powerful roles in shaping children’s
beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions.

14. Why children?
◦ Children develop attitudes about “gender
appropriate” behaviors at an early age
◦ Children often learn to define gender
roles through the imitation of role
models, including those from media.

15. Why children?
◦ Photographic images are more influential than text in
shaping messages that children perceive:
◦ Children develop a sense of visual literacy before they learn
written literacy.
◦ Children are often bombarded with photos depicting men as
leading more exciting, more important lives than women
◦ a 1990 study showed that two thirds of photographs and
pictures in reading primers were of men

16. Photographs and Framing
◦ Framing: the way visual or textual media messages are
manipulated and presented
◦ Provides a structured way to study the influence of messages.
◦ Sports photos depict how the world is (or how the
photographer thinks it should be).
◦ Photos are composed, cropped, manipulated, and placed in
such a way that they present a subjective message
◦ This message often seems objective and real
◦ Photos are usually vivid, memorable, and in an “easy to read”
format

17. Photographs and Framing
◦ A photograph’s ability to “show” how the world is
(what is cropped, what is in focus; which photos
are used, which are left out) makes it an effective
tool for framing an event, an issue, or a subject.

18. Framing in Photos
◦ Frames in images reinforce a particular judgment or
interpretation, in turn supporting a certain worldview
or stereotype.
◦ Media framing is particularly important when the issue
has potential social consequences.
◦ Media frames can affect the perceived legitimacy of
groups in society.
◦ Framing is particularly useful for examining gender,
class, and race presented by the media

19. Gender and Sport Media
◦ The media continue to define and reinforce the idea that sport
is a rite of passage for men.
◦ The media have not advanced the image or the societal
acceptance of female athletes.
◦ Sportswomen have historically been underrepresented and misrepresented in
coverage, despite increases in their participation
◦ The media often give disproportionate rates of coverage to men and women

20. Sports Illustrated Coverage
◦ In SI, men dominate issues—in photos and in feature
articles.
◦ This is especially significant because SI has been
labeled the most influential sports publication.
◦ This is the case in other media, from magazines such
as Sport and Tennis, to children’s sport media, to daily
newspapers.
◦ Lont (1995): “It is more common to find a story about
a man who lost than a woman who won.”

21. Gendered Sports
◦ When women are underrepresented, the implicit message
is that female athletes either do not exist or do not have
any noteworthy achievements
◦ Athletics are considered either socially acceptable or
unacceptable for women
◦ This is based on how each particular sport conforms to
traditional images of appropriate feminine behavior.

22. Gendered Sports
◦ Women receive more coverage in sports emphasizing
feminine ideals of grace, beauty, and glamour, such as figure
skating and gymnastics.
◦ Kane (1988): SI provided significantly more coverage to
female athletes in sex-appropriate sports (e.g., tennis, golf,
ice skating) than in sports considered less appropriate (e.g.,
basketball, softball, body building).
◦ Female athletes tend to be highlighted more often in
individual sports, such as tennis and golf, than do female
athletes in team sports.

23. Framing of Female Athletes
◦ Framing of women athletes emphasizes their appearance
and emotions.
◦ Bias in newspaper coverage of the 1996 Olympic games
involved:
◦ frequent mention of marital status
◦ attractiveness from a male gaze
◦ emotionality of female athletes
◦ the assignment of stories along gender lines.

24. Framing of Female Athletes
◦ Underrepresentation & misrepresentation of women
athletes is communicated most through photos.
◦ The number of photos, camera angles, and the types of
activity and passivity of subjects in photos are all ways
that photos can be used to frame gender.

25. Framing of Female Athletes
◦ Women are framed as sexual objects and
lesser competitors and as more willing to
display emotional outbursts than men in
sports photos
◦ Women, when they are not invisible, are
pictured as different from men in personality
traits, in roles, and in the body positions and
postures they assume.

26. Hardin et al – Research Questions
◦ Is the increased stature and media attention on women’s sports, gained
during the 1996 Olympics, reflected in the photos used in SIK?
◦ Has there been any change in the degree to which sexual difference is
conveyed in the magazine’s photographs?
◦ Duncan and Sayaovong’s (1990) results were used to provide a baseline for
comparison.

27. Research Questions
◦ This study looks at male and female athletes in terms of:
◦ Overall number of women and men in SIK’s photos
◦ Depictions of men and women in team sports
◦ Activity of men and women in the photos (is the majority of activity in
photos still reserved for men?)
◦ Depictions of leadership roles
◦ Choice of sport category
◦ Photo angles

28. Method
◦ Photos in all issues of SIK from July 1996 to June
1999 (36 issues) were examined.
◦ These issues were chosen to reflect a significant
post-1996 Olympics time period
◦ Content analysis was used to address the research
questions.

29. Categories of Analysis
◦ The unit of analysis was each individual depicted in all photos.
◦ Categorical variables:
◦ (a) photo domination (dominant or nondominant)
◦ (b) sex (male or female)
◦ (c) photo angle (straight, down, or up)
◦ (d) motion in photo (passive or active)
◦ (e) type of sport (individual or team)
◦ (f) category of sport (neutral, aesthetic, high risk, or strength)
◦ (g) leadership (owner, official, or coach).

30. Categories of Analysis
◦ Strength:
◦ Contact sports (i.e. football or boxing) in which one opponent
overpowers another by superior physical strength,
◦ Events (i.e. heptathlon) which requires great endurance.
◦ Weightlifting, wrestling, and some track and field events (discus or shot
put) are also examples of strength sports.
◦ High risk:
◦ The danger to the athlete is produced primarily by the physical
environment.
◦ i.e. snowboarding, race car driving, and rock climbing.

31. Categories of Analysis
◦ Aesthetic:
◦ Sports wherein success is determined primarily on the basis of
grace and proper form
◦ i.e. gymnastics, diving, dressage, figure skating
◦ Neutral:
◦ Contained all other sports
◦ i.e., basketball, volleyball, soccer, tennis, swimming.
◦ Largest category; included most track and field events,
baseball, and softball.

32. Findings – Number of Appearances
◦ Men were found to vastly outnumber women in SIK photos.
◦ Men were depicted in 76.3% of all editorial units of analysis
◦ An even larger percentage than Duncan & Sayaovong’s ratio
of 62% men to 28% women.
◦ Men were depicted almost 3x as often as women in all
photos, although in terms of ratios, women are
approximately as likely as men to be depicted in a dominant
photo

33. Findings – Team
vs Individual
◦ Men were more often depicted in team than in individual sports.
◦ Consistent with Duncan & Sayaovong’s ratio of 4:1
◦ Women were portrayed equally in team and individual sports, with 10% of total
depictions in each category.
◦ Women were more likely, in comparison to men, to be depicted in an individual sport.
◦ Similar to Duncan & Sayaovong, who found that only 5% of photos showed women in team
sports, whereas 25% portrayed women in individual sports.

34. Findings – Type of Pose
◦ Men were portrayed in active poses more often than women.
◦ 58% of the photos showed active men; only 15.1% of the photos depicted
active women.
◦ Over three quarters of men were depicted as active; 64% of women
depictions were active.
◦ For every 1 active woman shown, almost 4 active men were depicted.
◦ This is consistent with Duncan & Sayaovong, wherein men (55%) were
shown as more active than women (19%).

35. Findings – Leadership Roles
◦ Men were depicted far more frequently in leadership roles
than women were.
◦ Consistent with Duncan & Sayaovong
◦ Out of all depictions of leadership roles, 97% were men,
making women in leadership roles virtually nonexistent
◦ Women leaders appeared in 3 of the almost 6,000 depictions.
◦ Even these few photos were not prominent ones

36. Findings – Sports Categories
◦ Men dominated depictions of strength sports; women
represented less than 1%.
◦ 19 men were depicted in a strength sport, for every 1
woman.
◦ Consistent with Duncan & Sayaovong
◦ More men than women were represented in the high-risk
category of sport.
◦ Contrary to Duncan & Sayaovong

37. Findings – Sports Categories
◦ In the neutral category, men outnumbered women
by a ratio of 3:1.
◦ However, when ratios of men and women in neutral
sports are compared, men appear in neutral sports
only slightly more often than women

38. Findings – Photo Angles
◦ Most photos captured men and women athletes at eye level or
from a straight-on camera angle (89%).
◦ Photos using the down angle were few (4%)
◦ Only 7% of the photos were taken looking up at the individual.
◦ Consistent with Duncan and Sayaovong, there was little to no
difference in the association of a particular camera angle with
men or women.

39. Discussion
◦ Findings from this content analysis of SIK photographs were
comparable overall with Duncan & Sayaovong.
◦ The findings in this study suggest a clear pattern of differential
photographic treatment of gender throughout the analysis
◦ Despite gains made by women in the real world of sports, the
post-Olympic SIK is perhaps more skewed than it was 10 years
ago.

40. Discussion
◦ Duncan and Sayaovong found that men outnumbered women by a ratio of
2:1.
◦ This study showed that male representations dominated female
representations by a ratio of 3:1.
◦ The percentage of male domination in SIK photos has actually increased
since the earlier study.
◦ Comparing the two samples, photos of men increased by 14% and women
depictions decreased by less than half that figure (4%).

41. Discussion
◦ This change is especially significant when current
interscholastic participation rates are considered.
◦ Girls comprise about 37% of all high school athletes
◦ 1 of every 3 girls during the 1990s participated in some
kind of organized athletic activity, compared with 1 of 27 in
1971.
◦ This contrast is striking when considering that SIK is the
only sports magazine for a youth audience.

42. Discussion – Categories of Sports
◦ Men were most often depicted in team sports; women
were depicted evenly in team and individual sports.
◦ Few men were depicted in the aesthetic category of
sports, just as few women were depicted in strength or
high-risk sports.
◦ When men were depicted in aesthetic sports, they were
most often pictured stunt skateboarding or in-line
skating.
◦ This finding may suggest that young men are still
receiving messages that sports such as gymnastics and
figure skating are inappropriate.

43. Discussion
◦ One reason this continues to be prevalent for images in SIK
could be advertising revenue.
◦ Advertisers in the early 1990s threatened to pull ads from a
sports publication if the magazine covered women in
“unfeminine” or “sexually inappropriate” sports, and the
publisher acquiesced.
◦ Awareness of what advertisers will and will not tolerate is a
constant factor in the profit-driven media.

44. Discussion – Poses
◦ The ways in which gender was typically framed in terms
of active or passive poses reinforced gender differences.
◦ Although (because of the sheer number of photos of
men) men were portrayed more frequently than women
in passive poses, they were more likely than women to
appear active in photographs.

45. Discussion - Sports Leadership Roles
◦ Men dominated photos depicting sports leadership roles
(coach, official, owner).
◦ In 3 years of SIK issues, just three women in a coach or
official capacity were depicted.
◦ Unfortunately, this may be representative of the real
picture for women in sports leadership.
◦ In 1972, 90% of female sports teams were coached by
women, but that rate has plunged to less than 50%

46. Conclusion
◦ SIK has not moved away from gender stereotypes that are clearly outdated and
restrictive.
◦ Though more women in neutral team sports are pictured, SIK has done little to
present gender-equal images to its readers.
◦ The impact of the 1996 Olympic games seemed to have made little difference in
SIK.
◦ Moreover, the male athletes in SIK photos remain those associated with team
sports and ones that highlight strength and masculinity.
◦ Overall, female athletes remain underrepresented in all photo, overrepresented in
aesthetic sports, and framed more often than men in inferior ways.

47. Conclusion
◦ Market forces may drive SIK’s overwhelming male bias
◦ Editors know that the majority of readers (71%) are boys.
◦ The large increase in sport participation by girls suggests a need for SIK
to aggressively market to this potential new readership.
◦ This is sometimes seen in the magazine’s own “Letters to the Editor”
section, in which girls complain about lack of coverage about their
favorite athletes.
◦ “Can you please write more about the WNBA?” an 11-year-old girl wrote in
SIK’s Feb. 1999 issue.

48. Conclusion
◦ Another possible explanation is that those working in the magazine are simply
resistant to change.
◦ Photographic gatekeepers usually maintain the status quo without realizing how
their decisions lead to clear framing patterns.
◦ Framing women more positively (and realistically) would require effort beyond
that used to produce SIK now.
◦ Without a strong ethical commitment to transform SIK or an understanding of
market potential for more inclusion of women, the incentive to work harder is
likely not there.

49. Recommendations
◦ This study looks only at SIK editorial photos during a 3-year
period.
◦ Examination of the interplay of text and images would
provide a more complete picture of the gender messages in
this magazine.
◦ The neutral category of sport should also be addressed.
Assumptions about the gender neutrality of a sport should
be reexamined.

50. Recommendations
◦ Conclusions of this study are incomplete without an understanding
of the producers and consumers of these messages.
◦ A survey of SIK editors and staff about their decision-making processes for
photos would add to understanding
◦ Further research could examine the attitudes of children and teachers who
use SIK.
◦ If messages about gender in SIK are important, it follows that images
of race and disability are as well
◦ Examination of those should also be pursued to gain a better
understanding of media’s role in the socialization of children in sports and
culture.